WHO mulls reforms to repair reputation after bungling Ebola

FILE - In this Sunday Oct. 19, 2014 file photo, Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), addresses the media in Gammarth, northeastern Tunisia. The World Health Organization is considering reforms that could overhaul its structure in what may be a last-ditch effort to salvage its credibility after botching the response to the biggest-ever Ebola outbreak. WHO has been repeatedly slammed for its sluggish, clumsy efforts in battling the epidemic in West Africa. On Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015, WHO’s executive board, which advises the agency, will discuss proposals that could radically transform the U.N. health agency. (AP Photo/Adel Ben Salah, File) FILE - In this Sunday Oct. 19, 2014 file photo, Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), addresses the media in Gammarth, northeastern Tunisia. The World Health Organization is considering reforms that could overhaul its structure in what may be a last-ditch effort to salvage its credibility after botching the response to the biggest-ever Ebola outbreak. WHO has been repeatedly slammed for its sluggish, clumsy efforts in battling the epidemic in West Africa. On Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015, WHO’s executive board, which advises the agency, will discuss proposals that could radically transform the U.N. health agency. (AP Photo/Adel Ben Salah, File)

By Associated Press January 25, 2015 3 min read

GENEVA (AP) – The World Health Organization is debating how to reform itself after botching the response to the Ebola outbreak, a sluggish performance that experts say cost thousands of lives.

On Sunday, WHO’s executive board planned to discuss proposals that could radically transform the United Nations health agency in response to sharp criticism over its handling of the West Africa epidemic.

“The Ebola outbreak points to the need for urgent change,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general. She acknowledged that WHO was too slow to grasp the significance of the Ebola outbreak, which is estimated to have killed more than 8,600 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Critics say the kinds of reform being debated are long overdue.

“The groundswell of dissatisfaction and lack of trust in WHO over Ebola has reached such a crescendo that unless there is fundamental reform, I think we might lose confidence in WHO for a generation,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University.